Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus

Abstract

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus which forms a three-dimensional bloodstream image by reference to volume data obtained from a three-dimensional space within a living organism. Binarization processing and three-dimensional labeling processing are applied to velocity volume data, to thereby generate three-dimensional mask data. At this time, because a bloodstream object has a larger volume size than a noise object, this difference in volume size is utilized to discriminate between a bloodstream portion and a noise portion. Bloodstream volume data are then generated from the velocity volume data and by reference to the three-dimensional mask data. Then, a three-dimensional bloodstream image is formed by reference to the bloodstream volume data.

1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, comprising:
 a unit which transmits and receives ultrasonic waves with respect to a three-dimensional space within a living organism to obtain original volume data; 
 a computation unit which extracts motion information from the original volume data to generate motion volume data; 
 an identification unit which specifies a plurality of objects included in the motion volume data and identifies a type of each of the objects which are specified to thereby generate, as identification data, three-dimensional mask data for identifying a noise portion in the motion volume data; 
 an extraction unit which extracts bloodstream volume data from the motion volume data, the extraction unit having a three-dimensional gate-processing unit which removes the noise portion in the motion volume data by performing a logical operation between the three-dimensional mask data and the motion volume data; and 
 an image-forming unit which forms a three-dimensional bloodstream image by reference to the bloodstream volume data. 
 
     
     
       2. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the identification unit identifies the type of an object by reference to the size of each of the objects which are specified. 
 
     
     
       3. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the identification unit further includes a labeling processing unit which applies three-dimensional labeling processing to the motion volume data to thereby specify the plurality of objects. 
 
     
     
       4. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 3 , wherein
 the identification unit further includes a determination unit which determines whether or not each object is a bloodstream, by reference to a three-dimensional volume size of each object. 
 
     
     
       5. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein the three-dimensional volume size of the object is determined by counting a number of voxels the object comprises. 
     
     
       6. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 3 , wherein
 the identification unit further includes a binarization processing unit which applies binarization processing to the motion volume data prior to the three-dimensional labeling processing, and 
 the volume data having been subjected to the binarization processing are input to the labeling processing unit. 
 
     
     
       7. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 6 , wherein
 the binarization processing unit compares each of voxel data items forming the motion volume data with a discrimination reference value to thereby convert each of voxel data items into a valid value or an invalid value. 
 
     
     
       8. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the identification unit identifies an object which is greater than a predetermined size as a bloodstream and identifies an object which is smaller than the predetermined size as noise which is not a bloodstream. 
 
     
     
       9. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the image-forming unit sets a plurality of rays with respect to the bloodstream volume data to thereby determine a pixel value based on a sequence of voxel data on each ray. 
 
     
     
       10. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 9 , wherein
 the image-forming unit determines a pixel value concerning each ray by means of a maximum value method. 
 
     
     
       11. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 10 , wherein
 the image-forming unit assumes a first peak on each ray as a maximum value. 
 
     
     
       12. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 11 , wherein
 the first peak corresponds to a velocity or a power at a center portion of a bloodstream located on the front side closest to a viewpoint. 
 
     
     
       13. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the motion information is velocity information or power information, and 
 the motion volume data are composed of the motion information corresponding to the three-dimensional space. 
 
     
     
       14. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the three-dimensional bloodstream image is a color image. 
 
     
     
       15. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to  claim 1 , further including:
 a further image-forming unit which forms a three-dimensional tissue image by reference to the original volume data; and 
 a display unit which displays the three-dimensional bloodstream image and the three-dimensional tissue image. 
 
     
     
       16. A method of forming a three-dimensional bloodstream image by referencing motion volume data and executed by a computer, the method comprising:
 specifying a plurality of objects included in the motion volume data and determines whether or not each of the objects which are specified is a bloodstream to thereby generate as identification data, three-dimensional mask data for identifying a noise portion in the motion volume data; 
 extracting bloodstream volume data from the motion volume data by reference to the identification data, 
 wherein during extraction a three-dimensional gate-processing unit removes the noise portion in the motion volume data by performing a logical operation between the three-dimensional mask data and the motion volume data; and 
 forming a three-dimensional bloodstream image by reference to the bloodstream volume data.